Friends-Giving Festival and Chili Cookoff

Name: Friends-Giving Festival and Chili Cookoff
Start: 2024-11-16T10:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-11-16T19:00:00-05:00
Location: 2155 Front St, Meridian, MS 39301-5104, United States

Schedule

Sat Nov 16 2024 at 10:00 am to 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

2155 Front St, Meridian, MS 39301-5104, United States | Meridian, MS

This festival is a celebration of community and inclusivity, designed to support our organizations while providing a fantastic experience for families of all abilities. Our goal is for the Friendsgiving Festival to become an annual highlight in our community.
It will be a two part inclusive festival consisting of a Harvest Fest (9a-12p at the MAEX) and Chili Cookoff (3p-6p at Singing Brakeman Park) taking place on Saturday, November 16th.
This event aims to raise essential funds for both EmpowerKids Foundation and The SPOT, as we rely on external support rather than product sales.
The "Harvest Fest" portion will take place in the morning, from 9a-12p, on the lawn of the MAEX. The entire event is FREE, open to the public, family friendly and sensory friendly. It will open with an adaptive Color Walk for our friends with different abilities. We will have two start times for Color Walk.
- The first group will start at 9am and be for our younger friends.
- The second group will take off at 930 and be for our teens and adults. EmpowerKids has arranged for a physical mobility company to bring their adaptive equipment and the participants can use any of the equipment during the Color Walk.
In addition to the Color Walk, we will offer food trucks, resource vendors, bounce house, lawn games, crafts, and sensory friendly live music.
The Chili Cookoff portion will take place at Singing Brakeman Park from 3-6p.
- Tickets will be sold online prior to the event as well as at the gate on the event day.
- The teams in the Chili Cookoff will compete for three levels of cash prizes as well as a People's Choice vote.
- We have Daniel House and other artists lined up as part of the live entertainment.
While this portion of the event is not as entertaining for children, we plan on it being family and ability friendly.
All proceeds from the event go through our local Community Foundation East Mississippi and will be divided evenly to support the initiatives of EmpowerKids and The SPOT.
Stay tuned for how to sign up for the Color Walk and how to enter your team in the Chili Cookoff.